In a variety of applications in which a gas is present, it may be necessary to know the identity of the gas. For example, a hydrogen-cooled generator typically uses a high purity of hydrogen gas which flows within sealed chambers of the generator for maintaining power generation efficiency. However, a small amount of air may penetrate the sealed chamber of the generator. Thus, a gas analyzer may be needed, to determine the hydrogen gas purity within the generator, to ensure that the purity of hydrogen gas is within a concentration range, such as 95-98%, for example. In the event that the generator encounters an operating problem, it may be necessary to open a generator case, in order to troubleshoot the problem. However, the generator case initially contains pure hydrogen gas, and may cause a safety hazard if the case was prematurely opened. Thus, a secondary gas such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or nitrogen gas (N2) may be used to purge the generator case until the relative concentration of hydrogen gas is less than a threshold concentration, such as 4%, for example, before the case can be safely opened. Thus, a gas analyzer may be needed, to determine the relative concentration of the secondary gas and the hydrogen gas within the generator case, in order to determine that the generator case can be safely opened during a shutdown time.
Various gas analytical techniques have been developed to analyze gas and gas compositions, such as infrared absorption and thermal conductivity detection. However, these conventional techniques have several drawbacks, such as not providing a single gas sensor which is capable of sensing a wide range of gases, thereby necessitating a separate sensor/system for different gases. Additionally, for example, infrared absorption is used to sense a limited amount of gases, such as hydrocarbon-based gases, but is incapable of sensing various common gases, such as hydrogen. Additionally, for example, a conventional thermal conductivity detection technique is used to sense certain gases, but is less accurate at sensing a wide range of gases, based on a lack of required thermal sensitivity and baseline drift.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a gas detection system which overcomes the noted drawbacks of conventional gas sensing technologies, and is conveniently capable of sensing a wide variety of gases, with the required sensitivity.